How Do Competitive Bodybuilders Sustain Themselves?

[Nigel Forester]

I watched videos like this.


This guy is 255-265lbs and 6 feet and his bulking diet is 4300kcal of mostly chicken breast and some steak and white rice. Barely any veggies. Some apple juice.

He probably takes a multivitamin I’m guessing. On steroids. Lifts weights. I’m wondering how someone with this much muscle sustains himself in health with what seems like a deficient diet? Most bodybuilders eat similarly, some throw in some spinach and broccoli but that’s pretty much it.

Do you think these guys feel not so great? I notice most of them seem pretty low energy. They tend to be pretty sedentary when they aren’t in the gym.

 

[gaze]

if you eat enough calories/carbs/protein you can sustain fine for years. it’s certainly not optimal and they probably have high amounts of cortisol which takes its tole over the course of years. what he’s doing is certainly better then what most people do though of starving/binge eating/high pufa meals

 

[mujuro]

I watched videos like this.


This guy is 255-265lbs and 6 feet and his bulking diet is 4300kcal of mostly chicken breast and some steak and white rice. Barely any veggies. Some apple juice.

He probably takes a multivitamin I’m guessing. On steroids. Lifts weights. I’m wondering how someone with this much muscle sustains himself in health with what seems like a deficient diet? Most bodybuilders eat similarly, some throw in some spinach and broccoli but that’s pretty much it.

Do you think these guys feel not so great? I notice most of them seem pretty low energy. They tend to be pretty sedentary when they aren’t in the gym.

I’ve been there and I can say I felt a lot better when I lost some weight, stopped eating so much and focused on functional strength. Bodybuilding is a thankless and rewardless pursuit with no real goal posts, where nothing is validated objectively and broscience is the only source of information. People do “what works” and if that means 5 grams of hormones per week, so be it. The most annoying things were sweating all the time and not being able to buy nice clothes. You look ridiculous in most clothes anyway.

On the other hand, the discipline and habitual clean eating had me feeling very good mentally, even if it did eventually get a bit too obsessive.

 

[maillol]

I don't think their diet is that deficient on a bulk. They'll usually eat eggs, milk with their protein shakes, probably orange juice, lots of carbs lots of meat plus a cocktail of drugs of course. Some people are of the opinion now that veggies are not necessary. Personally I eat quite a lot for the sake of flavour and variety but I'm not sure how needed they are for sustenance. Bodybuilders on a cut however, definitely do feel terrible. This guy looks like he's on the verge of a mental breakdown

 

[Luann]

That WOE actually seems pretty low-PUFA, maybe his vitamins include fish oil though :P Wonder if they know something the average American / European doesn't.

 

[Nigel Forester]

I don't think their diet is that deficient on a bulk. They'll usually eat eggs, milk with their protein shakes, probably orange juice, lots of carbs lots of meat plus a cocktail of drugs of course. Some people are of the opinion now that veggies are not necessary. Personally I eat quite a lot for the sake of flavour and variety but I'm not sure how needed they are for sustenance. Bodybuilders on a cut however, definitely do feel terrible. This guy looks like he's on the verge of a mental breakdown

All that stuff you posted is nowhere in the video I posted. The guy in that vid doesn’t even look like he lifts with his clothes on.

FWIW I despise that city person , generic electro dance music , crap. Despite all the gear he appears to be a soi boy somehow. Pls don’t post such things in me or my wife’s son’s thread again

 

[Nigel Forester]

Great blog post but didn’t address my question at all .

I’ve been there and I can say I felt a lot better when I lost some weight, stopped eating so much and focused on functional strength. Bodybuilding is a thankless and rewardless pursuit with no real goal posts, where nothing is validated objectively and broscience is the only source of information. People do “what works” and if that means 5 grams of hormones per week, so be it. The most annoying things were sweating all the time and not being able to buy nice clothes. You look ridiculous in most clothes anyway.

On the other hand, the discipline and habitual clean eating had me feeling very good mentally, even if it did eventually get a bit too obsessive.

 

[Nigel Forester]

if you eat enough calories/carbs/protein you can sustain fine for years. it’s certainly not optimal and they probably have high amounts of cortisol which takes its tole over the course of years. what he’s doing is certainly better then what most people do though of starving/binge eating/high pufa meals

I don’t know how much minerals and vitamins chicken breast has but I bet you could eat 3lbs a day and not come close to even rda of vitamins and minerals and that’s not even taking into account the amount of stuff needed to stay healthy at that size. It’s surprising how bad their diets are. Maybe I’m just autistic about nutrition now in a way.

 

[powerlifter]

Ray peat mentioned this on a few occasions, muscles burn fatty acids on rest, which decreases the burden of free fatty acids on the blood. Low free fatty acids on the blood cause you to use carbs more effectively via Randle Cycle.

 

[Andman]

roids make up for most of it. unfortunately most of them are in pufa-oil, although ive been told the mct-stuff is becoming more common nowadays

 

[Kunstruct]

He probably takes a multivitamin I’m guessing.

Most of the top bodybuilders declare they take multivitamins anyway.
Now there are much more bodybuilders than the same 30 people that keep getting press and social media coverage.

 

[Nigel Forester]

Ray peat mentioned this on a few occasions, muscles burn fatty acids on rest, which decreases the burden of free fatty acids on the blood. Low free fatty acids on the blood cause you to use carbs more effectively via Randle Cycle.

This is interesting.

 

[Nigel Forester]

roids make up for most of it. unfortunately most of them are in pufa-oil, although ive been told the mct-stuff is becoming more common nowadays

It’s such a small amount anyways, a normal cycle not crazy doses could be 7.5ml-10ml oil per week.

 

[berk]

I watched videos like this.

some throw in some spinach and broccoli but that’s pretty much it.

moste people dont needs vegatables at all.
I you look at you cronometer and put in: 1 egg yolk, 100 gr red meat or liver and one servings of dairy and you have more enough vitamins and minerals
for the day.
bb's like him need ofcourse more but they are also eat lot more. 10 eggs every morning and couple pound of beef.

what I always wonder is why don't they suffer all the time from blood sugar crashes from all the white rice meals.
i cant stand it...

 

[maillol]

All that stuff you posted is nowhere in the video I posted. The guy in that vid doesn’t even look like he lifts with his clothes on.

FWIW I despise that city person , generic electro dance music , crap. Despite all the gear he appears to be a soi boy somehow. Pls don’t post such things in me or my wife’s son’s thread again

That is what bodybuilders in general eat though.

If it wasn't clear enough in my first post, I didn't post that video as someone to look up to.

Didn't realise you and your wife's son had posting rules. Maybe include them at the top in case there are any others that people should know about.

 

[Nigel Forester]

That is what bodybuilders in general eat though.

If it wasn't clear enough in my first post, I didn't post that video as someone to look up to.

Didn't realise you and your wife's son had posting rules. Maybe include them at the top in case there are any others that people should know about.

Just standard cuckold rules, tbh

 

[Andman]

It’s such a small amount anyways, a normal cycle not crazy doses could be 7.5ml-10ml oil per week.

quickly adds up tho, esp seeing as salmon & fish oil caps are basically a bodybuilding staple nowadays. although haidut mentioned in a thread somewhere that androgens do have a protective effect vs pufa

 

[milkbasedvegan]

I’ve taken some steroids, on average 175 mg/wk of test with orals such as turinabol (my favorite to date) and went up to 6’3 227lbs 9% body fat. It is extremely easy to get big and aesthetic on steroids. Those who inject 5x as much as I’ve done and don’t even look good are the most pathetic human beings on this planet.

Anyways - onto the bad news. Because I have very low subcutaneous fat and I kept pushing the envelope: Crp was up, HBA1c was up, ldl was up, eGFR was down. Even at a mere BMI of 28 / FFMI 25

The answer to this topic? They’re pushing through. They’re not observing their face becoming uglier and puffier by the day. Golden era bodybuilders looked much better and more youthful because they avoided potent androgens and stuck to high protein (of course) low carb diets such as Nubret for instance. Red meat all night.

it is a death cult. Accelerated aging. Liver stress. High DHT. Aromatase inhibitors. Growth hormone. SERMs. But they don’t wanna listen. Nobody wants to listen anyway. Virtually half of Ray’s and Haidut’s recommendations are flat out wrong and dangerous such as PUFAs, iron, estradiol being bad to begin with - no one wants their echo chamber disrupted.

 

[Andman]

sure, dont forget to mention that vitA is the most heinous toxin known to mankind

 

[berk]

. The guy in that vid doesn’t even look like he lifts with his clothes on.

post a pic about yourself and let's compare...